FAITH CAPSULE: Do you know His name or do you know about His name?

1 Samuel 13

It is written, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. (Proverbs 18:10)  Do you know His name or do you know about His name? There is a different about knowing His name and knowing about His name. The name of the Lord is Mighty God; the all sufficient, and that settles it. Those who know His name (not those who know about His name) will put their trust and Hope in Him. With lack of knowledge, many do not trust and hope in Him.

Saul is an example of one that trusted God but not able to hope in God. At a time of war against Philistines, he could not wait for Samuel as instructed before offering a burnt offering disobediently. Bible recorded Saul’s trust but not holding hope in God. 1 Samuel 13:7-12, “…As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. ⁸ Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. ⁹ So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” And he offered the burnt offering. ¹⁰ Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him. And Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, ¹² then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.” Without doubt, Saul trusted but could not hold in hope.
Are you a modern Saul? Are you one in the church with trust to pray for positive over issue but stepped out after church with negative confession concerning issue that was prayed for?
Trusting and hoping in the name of God which you know will work for you. Trust and hope to call  on Him for healing and He will answer to heal you.
You call Him with understanding and knowledge not because you hear about Him from man. Know it that God is the healing healer; the only God that reverses the irreversible and the God that makes a way where there is no way. Trust and hope in Him to be seeking. The Psalmist stated “For you, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You”. (Psalm 9:10) David recognized God as God that does not forsake those who seek Him.
Which God are you calling concerning your challenge? Jeremiah 17:7 buttressed the evidence to trust and hope stating, “Blessed is the man who trust in e Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.” Trust and hope in Him?

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to trust and hope in Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Does your life reflect Christ?

Matthew 7

What kind of man are you before God? Do you know what kind of man before God? Psalm 1:1-2 described man, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:1-2) Does the psalmist’s description fit you as a man? God alone sees all about His creation. In life, man can be deceived but God cannot be deceived. A man cannot be so innocent or ignorant about the kind of self in the way of living life.
Are you kind of man that is carrying a placard that Jesus is Lord but not having a place for Jesus in way of living life? Truly and indeed, He knows all about man.
Jesus stated in Matthew 7:22-23, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”  Getting work done in His name for His name without walking in His ways will get no one to be recognized by Jesus when it matters the most.
What kind of man are you before God? Today, with honest, question and answer self to identify the kind of man are you before God.
Jesus once asked His disciples, saying to them “who do men say that I am” (Mark 8:27) It is not that it matters to Jesus who the people say He was or He is today. However, it is glaring by virtue of His walk, where He sat and what He stood for. He is the King of kings and He is the Lord of lords.
Does your life reflect Christ? Are you a bible which people can read? Is the word of God rooted in you? Man can be deceived but God cannot be deceived. It is possible for man to be well decorated before man but naked and empty before God. Forget about your titles, it is how you engage God’s task for you that matters before God. In life, your walk, where you sit and what you stand will answer to the question about what kind of man are you before God.
Do to yourself what the psalmist did to self as stated in Psalm 26:1-4, “Vindicate me, O Lord, For I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the Lord; I shall not slip. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; Try my mind and my heart. For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth. I have not sat with idolatrous mortals, Nor will I go in with hypocrites.”
It is the walk we walk that will identifies us before God.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to walk His walk and be identified for His glory.

FAITH CAPSULE: It is always wrong to do His instruction outside of His way.

1 Samuel 15

In your entire walk with God, know to do right and not just know about God’s instruction. Do you know better? King David knew better, he had a relationship with God that was amazing; in-fact God called him “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14) So while David wanted to bring the Ark back to Israel which is a good thing, he decided to do it in a fancy way not the way God wanted. In that fancy, Uzzah’s life paid costly by touching the Ark when he was wrong to touch it. Eventually, David brought the Ark back to Israel the right way.
In our lives there are so many things God is telling us or instructing us, but we are stubborn and want to do God a favor in our way. For real, we are to OBEY God in His way not in our way.
Saul obeyed instruction of God in his own way, he was not careful with God’s instruction and it was costly for his life. This is what happened to Saul taking to his way in the place of God’s way: “Samuel also said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” (1 Samuel 15:1-3) Saul was stubborn as he went his own way, disobeying God.
I Samuel 15:7-9 recorded Saul’s choice to disobeying God, “Saul attacked the Amalekites, from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt.  He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.” In life, pleasing God is obeying God’s instruction. Displeasing God is being stubborn or pleasing self in the way of doing God’s instruction. It is wrong and it will always be wrong to do His instruction outside of His way.
With faith in God’s word, seek God diligently to please Him. Hebrews 11:6 heartens, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Samuel delivered God’s verdict to Saul for his disobedient, “…Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.” (1 Samuel 15:26) Saul did wrong before God: He was rejected concerning his disobedient.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace not to live for Him wrongly.

FAITH CAPSULE: Allow God to take you through just as He promised.

Deuteronomy 1:1-22

God is able to see you through. He is a faithful God; lying is not in His character; deception does not have a place in Him or before him. God is true and whatever He says He will do is a done deal. God is absolutely faithful to His Word. It is written in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.” God that made this statement will not purposely build you up and turn around to pull you down. The children of Israel were delivered from the bondage of over four hundred years, God is a mighty Deliverer. The hand of God was carrying the Israelites to fulfill the possibility of His plan (Promised Land) but the Israelites constantly fold-up their hands to receive and embrace the hands of God.
At a certain stage of their journey, Moses said to them “Look, the LORD your God has set the land before you: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of your father has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged” (Deuteronomy 1:21) Sadly, the children of Israel had a different mindset of getting to their Promise Land. They did not take to heart the word of Moses, the mouthpiece of God. The children of Israel were in the nearer to the Promised Land but they were too far in their heart to the promise of God. When it was more important for the Israelites to be looking up to God they turned to looking at their challenges. Your challenge to be claiming the promise of God for you is your distraction. Without doubt, distraction will always deny or destroy the promise of God for man. Why not unfold your hand for the hand of God to carry you through? Package your word with positive to ask for His intervention when negative comes like storm for you to become stagnated. God will perform is promise with perfection. When God makes a promise and you are not looking up to that promise, you will miss out of His promise. Are you looking away from God or you are looking down outside of God?
The Israelites made the choice not to respond by Moses’ direction as stated, “Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come (Deuteronomy1:22).”
God’s plan and direction was to take the Israelites to their Promised Land but not to be paying attention to man’s word of direction to go. Has He spoken and not bring it to pass? Allow God to take you through just as He promised.

Prayer for today: Ask for His grace not to expire over your life in His word for you.

FAITH CAPSULE: Praising God is sacrifice and one with praise for God will have God.

Psalms 47, 100

God that does not sleep is available in His position for us to enter, engage and maintain His presence by praising Him with understanding. Psalmist declared in Psalm 47:7, “For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with understanding” Praising God is to enter, engage and maintain the presence of gracious and merciful God. When the soul and the heart of man becomes the habitation of praising God day and night then man will be gain entrance, engage and maintain the presence of God. Without doubt, praise is a language of faith.
Do you have praise to offer God?
Man with offer to praise God with understanding will have God. It is important to be praising God with understanding not as entertainment. Praising God with understanding is the way of getting God’s attention. In all ways of engaging God to enter, engage and maintain is presence is in understanding. With praising God with understanding, there will be a knowing-edge that provokes God’s response to man. We are to approach God on throne of grace with praise that is rooted in the heart not just in the head or mouth. Psalmist stated in Psalm 100: 4, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise…” Without doubt, there is no iota of lie, confusion or contradiction in the bible except if the reader is confused. God is on the throne of praise. Psalm 22:3 buttressed, “But you are holy, enthroned in the praise of Israel.”
With a clear understanding that God inhabits the praises of His people it is worthy to know that God is within the reach of man with praising understanding. Rendering praises unto God is a very serious matter, and it is for those that want to enter, engage and maintain the presence of God.
Praising God is rendering a sacrifice. Hebrews 13:15, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” Since praise is a sacrifice to God and it also takes us to God, it is best to be sanctified before the sacrifice. The book of 1 Samuel 16:5 points out, “And he said, ’Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.’ Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons, and invited them to the sacrifice.” At the time Samuel was sent by God to go and anoint David, it is clear that sanctification comes before sacrifice. A sacrifice without sanctification is a distant to God. Also, we cannot gather in sin and claim to be sacrificing unto Him in praise worship. Praise is sacrifice and it is proper to render a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service. (Romans 12:1). Sanctify self and deliver a sacrifice of praise to engage God and maintain His presence.

 Prayer for today: Ask for the grace of self-sanctification to deliver reasonable sacrifice praise to God.